^ On
a 30 October:2005 Presidential
election in Côte d'Ivoire. –(050917)2005
Rigged election in Zanzibar. President Amani
Abeid Karume [01 Nov 1948~] is declared re-elected. In the elections
for the House of Representatives, his ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM)
party, which also holds power on the Tanzanian mainland would be declared,
two days later, to have won 239'832 votes versus 207'773 for the main opposition
party, the Civic United Front (CUF).
– (051101)2005 At 03:25 UT Mars
is 69'422'386 km from Earth (center to center). That's the closest until
28 June 2018, but not as close as on 27 August 2003. — (051029)2004 Elections in Botswana to fill 57 of the parliamentary
seats. The opposition being split, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) wins
easily. It has won every election since independence from Great Britain
in 1966. 2000 School
stupidity: Brandi Blackbear, 15, was suspended for 15 days
from her Tulsa high school in December 1999, for witchcraft, the ACLU reveals
as it says it has filed a lawsuit on her behalf. Brandi, a Catholic, was
accused of making a male teacher sick.1999 Red Cross
says Russian attack on Chechen refugees killed 2 of its workers (CNN)
1998 Para ayudar a los países con dificultades financieras,
el Grupo de los 7 aprueba un fondo de 12,6 billones de pesetas, aportado
por el Banco Mundial y el Fondo Monetario Internacional. 1997
Mary McAleese se convierte en la primera ciudadana del Ulster que
gana las elecciones presidenciales en Irlanda desde la independencia. 1997 En Chile, El general Ricardo Izurieta es designado
sucesor del General José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, para los siguientes
cuatro años. 1997 El cohete europeo " Ariane 5"
realiza su segundo vuelo de ensayo tras la explosión del primer lanzamiento
en junio de 1996 . El accidente del anterior vuelo supuso un retraso de
más de dos años en la comercialización prevista del nuevo cohete. 1997 A jury in Cambridge, Massachusetts, convicts British
au pair Louise Woodward of second-degree murder of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen.
The judge would later reduce the verdict to manslaughter and set Woodward
free. 1996 After a four-hour trial, a Chinese court
sentences pro-democracy activist Wang Dan to 11 years in prison for "conspiring
to subvert the Chinese government." (Wang would be freed in April 1998
and sent into exile in the United States.)

1996 Lotus Notes to introduce Web browser IBM subsidiary Lotus said it
would include a Web browser in its Lotus Notes software, a popular
groupware program that allowed users to share data and collaborate
on documents. The browser would allow users to store Web pages and
work with them offline. In a surprise takeover, IBM had purchased
Notes in July 1995, in an attempt to shore up its offerings in networking
and Internet software. The takeover was the largest-ever deal for
a software company.

^
1995 Québec separatists narrowly lose referendum
Citizens of the province of Quebec
vote to remain within the federation of Canada by a narrow majority
of 50.6% to 49.4% in a referendum. The referendum asked Quebec's citizens,
the majority of whom are French-speakers, to vote whether their province
should begin the process that could make it independent of Canada.
Beginning in the 1960s, the Quebec independence movement steadily
gained ground, leading to the establishment of a powerful separatist
party in 1967--the Parti Quebecois--and a 1980 independence referendum
that was defeated by a 60% to 40% margin. Far narrower than the 1980
margin, the 1995 referendum was the biggest threat to Canadian unity
in the country's 128-year existence, carrying with it the possibility
of losing nearly one-third of its population if the "Oui" vote won.
Quebec separatists refrained from any significant violence after their
narrow defeat, but former Quebecois leader Jacques Parizeau raised
the shadow of racial tension by declaring that his campaign had been
beaten by "money and the ethnic vote.

1993 the U.N. Security Council condemned Haiti's military
leaders for preventing the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.1992 Muslim Slav, Croatian soldiers and civilians were
driven from the strategic Bosnian town of Jajce in fierce street battles
with Serbian forces.1991 The Middle East peace conference
in Madrid, Spain, opens with addresses to the delegates by President George
Bush (Sr.) and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.. The participants
included Israel, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestinians from the
Israeli-occupied territories.1991 30 países firman
en Madrid el protocolo del Tratado Antártico, que protege a la zona de la
explotación durante 50 años. 1989 Mitsubishi Estate
Co., a major Japanese real estate concern, announced it was buying 51 percent
of Rockefeller Group Inc. of New York.1988 Philip
Morris pays $13.1 billion to take over fellow industry giant Kraft. While
Phillip Morris was sizeable even before the deal, acquiring Kraft made it
the world's single biggest producer of consumer goods. 1988
Liberado, sano y salvo, Emiliano Revilla, tras pagar un rescate de unos
dos mil millones de pesetas a ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna), que le mantuvo
secuestrado durante 249 días.

1988 For Sale: Sears Tower Sears executives announce that
they plan to sell the 110-story Sears Tower. The idea was to use the
money from the sale--which promised to range anywhere from $800 million
to $1.2 billion--to buy back sizeable amounts of the company's stock.
Along with putting what was once the world's tallest building on the
trading block, Sears unveiled a new retailing strategy designed to
stimulate business. The plan called for across-the-board price cuts,
as well as a shift toward stocking more name-brand merchandise. Wall
Street was less than impressed with Sears' new game plan. While the
sale of the tower would undoubtedly rake in some much-needed cash,
analysts feared that slashing prices would further damage the company's
short-term earnings. The announcement triggered a small sell-off and
Sears' stock closed the day with a $1.875 loss.

1975 Prince Juan Carlos assumes power in
Spain Prince
Juan Carlos de Borbón becomes Spain's acting head of state
after General Francisco Franco, the dictator of Spain since 1936,
concedes that he is to ill to govern. The eighty-three-year-old dictator
has been suffering serious health problems for nearly a year, and
three weeks after Juan Carlos assumes power, Franco dies of a heart
attack. Two days later, Juan Carlos is sworn in as the first ruling
monarch of Spain in more than forty years. Juan Carlos's grandfather
was Alfonso XIII, the last ruling monarch of Spain, who was forced
into exile after he refused to abdicate the throne after Spain was
declared a republic. Juan Carlos, born in Italy in 1938, returned
to Spain in 1955 under the invitation of Franco, and studied in Madrid
before earning several commissions in the Spanish armed forces. In
1969, Franco named him his successor. However, after assuming power,
King Juan Carlos I immediately begins dismantling Franco's system
of dictatorial government, and over the next decade presides over
a period of extensive democratization in Spain.

1972 President Nixon signs legislation that increases Social
Security spending for the elderly by $5.3 billion. The Social Security Act
also increase- annual sums paid out to beneficiaries and expands the Medicare
rolls to include disabled citizens under age sixty-five.1965
Souhayl Ben Barka, jefe de la oposición socialista marroquí, es secuestrado
en París. 1965 In New York City, military veterans
lead a parade in support of government policy in Vietnam. Led by five recipients
of the Congressional Medal of Honor, 25'000 people march in support of the
US's action in Vietnam.

1965 US Marines repel attack near Da Nang.
Just a few kilometers from Da Nang,
US Marines repel an intense attack by successive waves of Viet Cong
troops and kill 56 guerrillas. A search of the dead uncovered a sketch
of Marine positions written on the body of a 13-year-old Vietnamese
boy who had been selling drinks to the Marines the previous day. This
incident was indicative of the nature of a war in which even the most
seemingly innocent child could be the enemy. There were many other
instances where South Vietnamese civilians that worked on or near
US bases provided information to and participated in attacks alongside
the enemy.

1961 The 23rd Soviet Party Congress unanimously approves
a resolution ordering the removal of Josef Stalin's body from Lenin's tomb
in Red Square. 1961 Soviet Union tests a 58 megaton
hydrogen bomb 1956 Israel captures Egyptian militay
post at El-Thamad 1956Eighth
day of the Hungarian Revolution. 1954 US Defense
Department announces elimination of all segregated regiments
1953 It is announced that the 1953 Nobel Peace Prize will go to
US General George Catlett Marshall [31 Dec 1880  16 Oct 1959], General,
President American Red Cross, ex-Secretary of State and of Defense, and
Delegate to the UN, for originating, after World War II, the European Recovery
Program (Marshall Plan), which he first suggested in a 05 June
1947 address..  MORE

1953 Eisenhower approves US participation
in nuclear arms race
President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves National Security
Council Paper No. 162/2 (NSC 162/2). The top secret document made
clear that America's nuclear arsenal must be maintained and expanded
to meet the communist threat. It also made clear the connection between
military spending and a sound American economy. The paper began by
warning that the Soviet Union already possessed sufficient atomic
weapons and delivery capabilities to inflict a "crippling blow to
our industrial base and our continued ability to prosecute a war.
While in the short-term such
action by the Soviets seemed unlikely, this did not mean that the
United States could afford to slacken its efforts to stockpile "sufficient
atomic weapons. In specific situations, the United States should
"make clear to the USSR and Communist China...its intention to react
with military force against any aggression by Soviet bloc armed forces.
Nuclear weapons should be "as available for use as other weapons.
NSC 162/2 indicated the growing reliance of the United States on its
nuclear arsenal as a deterrent to communist aggression during the
Eisenhower years. It also suggested that concerns were being raised
about the ability of the American economy to support both a booming
domestic standard of living and massive military expenditures. Its
approval by the President was a definite sign of his so-called "New
Look" foreign policy that depended on more cost efficient nuclear
weapons to fight the Cold War.

1944
Anne Frank is moved from Auschwitz to Belsen< In Nazi-occupied
Holland, thirteen-year-old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family
were forced to take refuge in a secret sealed-off area of an Amsterdam
warehouse on 6 July 1942. The day before, Anne's older sister, Margot,
had received a call-up notice to be deported to a Nazi "work camp.
Born in Germany on 12 June 1929,
Anne Frank fled to Amsterdam with her family in 1933 to escape Nazi
persecution. In the summer of 1942, with the German occupation of
Holland underway, twelve-year-old Anne began a diary relating her
everyday experiences, her relationship with her family and friends,
and observations about the increasingly dangerous world around her.
Just a few months later, under threat
of deportation to Nazi concentration camps, the Frank family was forced
into hiding in a secret sealed-off area of an Amsterdam warehouse.
Over the next two years, under the threat of murder by the Nazi officers
patrolling just outside the warehouse, Anne kept a diary that is marked
by poignancy, humor, and insight.
On 04 August 1944, just two months
after the successful Allied landing at Normandy, the Nazi Gestapo
discovers the Frank’s "Secret Annex. Along with another Jewish
family with whom they had shared the hiding place, and two of the
Christians who had helped shelter them, the Franks were sent to the
Nazi death camps. Anne, on 02 September 1944, and most of the others
ended up at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, although her
diary was left behind, undiscovered by the Nazis. On 30 October
1944, Anne was moved to Belsen.
In early 1945, with the Soviet liberation
of Poland underway, Anne was moved with her sister, Margot, to the
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. Suffering under the deplorable
conditions of the camp, the two sisters caught typhus and died in
early March, probably on 12 March in the case of Anne.
After the war, Anne’s diary was discovered
undisturbed in the Amsterdam hiding place, and in 1947, was translated
into English and published. An instant bestseller which was eventually
translated into over thirty languages, The Diary of Anne Frank
has served as a literary testament to the six million Jews, including
Anne herself, who were silenced in the Holocaust.

^1941 FDR approves Lend-Lease aid to the USSR President Roosevelt, determined
to keep the United States out of the war while helping those allies
already mired in it, approves $1 billion in Lend-Lease loans to the
Soviet Union. The terms: no interest and repayment did not have to
start until five years after the war was over. The Lend-Lease program
was devised by President Roosevelt and passed by Congress on 11 March
1941. Originally, it was meant to aid Great Britain in its war effort
against the Germans by giving the chief executive the power to "sell,
transfer title to, exchange, lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of"
any military resources the president deemed ultimately in the interest
of the defense of the United States. The reasoning was: If a neighbor
was successful in defending his home, the security of your home was
enhanced. Although the Soviet Union had already been the recipient
of American military weapons, and now had been promised $1 billion
in financial aid, formal approval to extend the Lend-Lease program
to the USSR had to be given by Congress. Anticommunist feeling meant
much heated debate, but Congress finally gave its approval to the
extension on 07 November. By the end of the war, more than $50
billion in funds, weapons, aircraft, and ships had been distributed
to 44 countries. After the war, the Lend-Lease program morphed into
the Marshall Plan, which allocated funds for the revitalization of
"friendly" democratic nations-even if they were former enemies.

1939 USSR & Germany agree on partitioning Poland 1938 A radio staging of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds
(with simulated news reports) is broadcast by Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre
at CBS. Many panic believing it is a newscast about a real Martian invasion1938 Anexión de los Sudetes por Alemania y desmembramiento
de Checoslovaquia. 1930 Turkey & Greece sign a
treaty of friendship 1925 John Logie Baird consigue
la primera transmisión televisiva de un objeto en movimiento. 1923
En Alemaña, Wilhelm Marx, jefe del partido centrista, forma nuevo
1922 Mussolini sends his black shirts into Rome.
The Fascist takeover is almost without bloodshed. The next day, Mussolini
is made prime minister. Mussolini centralized all power in himself as leader
of the Fascist party and attempted to create an Italian empire, ultimately
in alliance with Hitler's Germany. -- Les militants fascistes du parti de
Benito Mussolini célèbrent par une "Marche
sur Rome" la nomination deux jours plus tôt de leur chef à la tête du
gouvernement. C'est la première victoire d'un parti non-démocratique en
Europe occidentale.  Benito Mussolini recibe el encargo de formar
Gobierno en Italia.. 1918 The Italians capture Vittorio
Veneto and rout the Austro-Hungarian army. 1918
Estalla en Hungría la "revolución de las rosas de otoño", dirigida por el
conde Miguel Karoly, que formó el primer Gobierno nacional, pues Hungría
quedó separada de Austria. 1918 Turkey signs an
armistice at Mudros with the WWI Allies, agreeing to end hostilities at
noon, 31 October. The Ottomans surrender their remaining garrisons in Hejaz,
Yemen, Syria, Mesopotamia, Tripolitania, and Cyrenaica; the Allies are to
occupy the Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus, Batum (now in southwest
Georgia), and the Taurus tunnel system; and the Allies win the right to
occupy “in case of disorder” the six Armenian provinces in Anatolia and
to seize “any strategic points” in case of a threat to Allied security.
The Ottoman army is demobilized, and Turkish ports, railways, and other
strategic points were made available for use by the Allies.
1918 Slovakia asks for creation of Czechoslovakian state 1915 Aristide Briand sustituye a Viviani en el cargo de
primer ministro de Francia. 1912 Battle
of Lulé Burgas enters its third day, as Bulgarians try
to overcome stiff Turkish resistance. The bloody battle would last a a week
during which the Turkish infantry endured murderous barrages from the Bulgarian
artillery. By 03 November, the Turks would be in full retreat toward the
lines of Tchataldja, the last line of defense before Constantinople 30 km
to the south. 1905 "October Manifesto": Russian
Tsar Nicholas II [18 May 1868 – 17 Jul 1918] promises civil liberties
and elections in an attempt to avert the burgeonng support for revolution,
but has no intention to keep these promises that he considers extracted
from him under duress.. -- Suite à la révolution
de janvier et à la défaite
des Russes face aux Japonais, le tsar Nicolas II doit publier un Manifeste
par lequel il instaure un régime constitutionnel en Russie. Mais cette expérience
ne durera pas plus de quelques mois et son échec conduira le tsarisme et
le tsar à leur mort.1905 Tras la superación de la
crisis, se reorganiza el Gobierno español y lo preside Eugenio Montero
Ríos. 1903 Revolución en Santo Domingo. Barcos de
guerra americanos y europeos desembarcan tropas para proteger los consulados.
1902 Pope Leo XIII published the apostolic letter
"Vigilantiae," which officially established the Pontifical Commission of
Biblical Studies. Created to safeguard the authority of Scripture from outside
secular criticism, in 1904 the Commission was empowered to confer academic
degrees. 1899 Two battalions of British troops are
cut off, surrounded and forced to surrender to General Petrus Joubert's
Boers at Nicholson's Nek.

1890 Oakland, California, enacts anti-drug
law Oakland,
California, enacts a law against opium, morphine, and cocaine. The
new regulations allowed only doctors to prescribe these drugs, which,
until then, had been legal for cures or pain relief. Reflecting a
general trend at the time, Oakland was only one of the jurisdictions
across the country that began to pass criminal laws against the use
of mind-altering substances.
In 1880, Kansas banned the sale and manufacture of all intoxicating
liquors in an amendment to its constitution. Many other states left
the question open to county governments, which resulted in different
alcohol laws in every town. Soon, sellers were required to obtain
a license in most states. Interestingly, both Texas and Massachusetts
passed laws requiring that bars and saloons have open windows, presumably
so that the community could keep an eye on what was happening inside.
In the latter part of the 19th century, opium dens began to spring
up. Generally, there was no legal prohibition on these narcotics,
although respectable society certainly disapproved of addicts.
Due to the growth of the opium problem
after the acquisition of the Philippines, the Harrison Act of 1914
was passed, which added a tax to the sale of narcotics. This was intended
to stop the easy availability of drugs, and in 1919, the act was extended
to prohibit even the use of drugs in small doses for recovering addicts.
More recently, drug laws have been witnessing a bit of a backlash.
In the late 1990s, California and Arizona voters passed ballot initiatives
that allow for the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

1875 Missouri's Constitution ratified Missouri's constitution is ratified
by popular vote, bringing unity to an American state with a history
of division. Named for one of the Native-American groups that once
lived in the territory, Missouri became a US possession as part of
the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. In 1817, Missouri Territory applied
for statehood, but the question of whether it would be slave or free
delayed approval by Congress. Finally, the Missouri Compromise of
1820 was reached, admitting Missouri as a slave state but excluding
slavery from the other lands of the Louisiana Purchase north of Missouri's
southern border. However, in August of 1821, Missouri's entrance into
the Union as a slave state was met with disapproval by a sizable portion
of its citizens. In 1861, when other slave states succeeded, Missouri
chose to remain in the Union, but a provincial government was established
in the next year by Confederate sympathizers. During the war, Missourians
were split in their allegiances, supplying both Union and Confederate
forces with troops. Lawlessness persisted during this period, and
Missouri-born Confederate guerillas such as Jesse James kept the spirit
alive after the South's defeat. With the ratification of Missouri's
new constitution by the citizens of the state in 1875, those old divisions
were finally put to rest.

0701 Pope John VI is consecrated. He ruled for St. Wilfrid
of England in one of that dominating prelate's squabbles.0335
Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, meets Constantine outside Constantinople.
Constantine flies into a rage when someone says Athanasius held up grain
shipments from Egypt. This leads to one of Athanasius's many episodes of
disfavor with ruling authorities.

2005
Justin D. James, 19, while being taken to Natchitoches Regional
Medical Center after being found unconscious in his apartment on University
Parkway in Winnfield, Louisiana, at 13:00 (19:00 UT). —(051107) 2005
Kyle Lake, 33, electrocuted by touching a microphone to adjust
it while standing in deep water in the baptismal fountain of University
Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, of which he was pastor, with a congregation
of 800 present. He was about to baptize by submersion a woman, who had not
yet stepped into the water. — (051101)2005 Ghalib Abdul
Mahdi, and his driver, shot on their way to work in Baghdad, Iraq,
where Mahdi, brother of Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi, was an adviser
to the cabinet of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. —(051031)2004 Seven persons, by car bomb at the building housing
the offices of the Al-Arabiya television network in the Mansour neighborhood
of Baghdad, Iraq. 19 persons are wounded.2004 Some 20 persons
in three minibuses and three vans near Haswa, Iraq, as puppet Iraqi policemen
and National Guardsmen fire randomly at traffic and throw handgrenades,
after a US military convoy has left after being attacked by three roadside
bombs. Many persons are injured.2004 Eight US Marines
by car bomb between Baghdad and Fallujah, Iraq. Nine US Marines are wounded
during fighting in the area. 2004 Shosei Koda, 24,
Japanese backpacking tourist in Iraq, videotaped being beheaded by the followers
of , who had kidnapped him on 26 October and demanded in vain that Japan
withdraw its (non-combat) troops from in Iraq.2003 Four construction
workers after the 10:40 (15:40 UT) collapse of the top five floor
slabs on one side of a 10-story garage under construction for the Tropicana
Casino in Atlantic City NJ. [photo >]2002
Julian Lewis, 51, and his son C.J. Lewis, 25,
shot in their Keeling, Virginia, home by Rodney Fuller, 20, and Matthew
Shallenberger, 22, killers hired by the wife of Julian and stepmother of
C.J. Teresa Lewis, who wanted to collect their life insurance.After pleading
guilty in May 2003, she would be sentenced to death on 03 June 2003, though
her IQ of 72 is close to the 71 below which the death penalty would be unconstitutional,
according to a 2002 ruling by the US Supreme Court. Fuller would enter into
a plea agreement to testify against Shallenberger in exchange for avoiding
the death penalty and getting a sentence of life in prison instead.2002 Erika
Marie Dalquist, born on 18 April 1981, is never seen alive
again (except by an unidentified male brown-haied White male acquaintance
and possibly by other secretive criminals) after leaving the Tropical Nites,
a downtown Brainerd, Minnesota (near I-94), bar popular with students from
Central Lakes College. She was waiting for a taxi after the bar closed at
01:00, when she saw a man she recognized. She told her friends, who did
not know the man, to cancel her cab, and she walked away with him. She worked
at a telemarketing company.2000 Five members of the Ahmadiyya community,
shot by several gunmen as they leave their mosque after early morning prayers
in Ghatialian village, near Sialkot, Punjab, Pakistan. Among the victims
is a 16 year-old boy. Ten others are injured. It seems that in the following
days no one is arrested in connection with the attack. There was tension
in the village over religious issues. In 1999, a truce had been reached
between Ahmadis and non-Ahmadis but Islamist groups had continued to instigate
random violence. The local authorities took no action to halt intermittant
attacks on Ahmadis. Ahmadis are considered heretical by orthodox Muslims
in Pakistan. The Ahmadiyya community was declared non-Muslim in 1974 and
a number of laws were subsequently passed which makes it a criminal offense
for Ahmadis to profess, practice, and preach their faith. Dozens of Ahmadis
have been charged under religious sections of the Pakistan Penal Code. In
Sialkot district alone, criminal cases based on religion were brought against
23 Ahmadis earlier in 2000. Some 20 Ahmadis have been killed since 1994
by those who oppose their faith. Religious organizations advocating violence
against Ahmadis are permitted to function openly. Vernacular media spreading
the message of hate and violence of such organizations are not restrained
by the authorities.

^2000 José Francisco Querol, 69, Armando Medina
Sánchez, Jesús Escudero García, by car bomb
Querol, a Supreme Court judge, his bodyguard,
policeman Escudero, and his driver, Medina, are killed when a suspected
Basque separatist car bomb rocks a busy residential area during the
morning rush hour. About 30 persons are injured. Querol worked a military
section of the court, had the rank of general and was due to retire
next month. The blast occurred
at 09:15 as people were going to work and children to schools in the
Arturo Soria area of northeastern Madrid. The car bomb detonated in
another vehicle as the judge's car was about to drive away. A bus
was completely burnt out in the blast. It was not known if it was
carrying passengers, but the driver was among those seriously injured.
This is the doing of the Basque separatist
group ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) which has frequently used car-bombs
as part of its 32-year-old campaign for Basque independence in an
area stradding northern Spain and southwest France. ETA has been blamed
for some 800 killings since 1968, including 16 since December 1999
when it ended a 14-month cease-fire. ETA's last attributed attack
was on 22 October 2000 when a prison officer was killed by a bomb
attached to his car in the Basque city of Vitoria.

^2000 Steve Allen, 78 Steve
Allen was a comic who pioneered late night television with the original
"Tonight Show," composed more than 4000 songs and wrote 40 books.
Allen's most enduring achievement came with the introduction of "The
Tonight Show" in 1953. The show began as "Tonight" on the New York
NBC station WNBT, then moved to the network on 27 September 1954.
. Allen's popularity led NBC in 1956 to schedule "The Steve Allen
Show" on Sunday evenings opposite "The Ed Sullivan Show" on CBS. A
variation of "Tonight," the primetime show was notable for its "Man
in the Street Interview" featuring new comics Louis Nye ("Hi-ho, Steverino"),
Don Knotts, Tom Poston, Pat Harrington and Bill Dana. The show lasted
through 1961, although the last year was on ABC. Allen cut back his
"Tonight' duties to three nights a week when the primetime show started.
He left even that in 1956. He was replaced for a season by Ernie Kovacs,
then NBC tried a new format in 1957, "Tonight! America after Dark.
It failed, and "Tonight" resumed with Jack Paar, followed by Johnny
Carson in 1962. Over the years,
Allen maintained a busy career, making appearances in movies and TV
series, often with his wife Jayne. He wrote great quantities of songs,
and several were recorded by pop vocalists.
A self-styled advocate of "radical middle-of-the-roadism," Allen often
spoke out on political matters such as capital punishment, nuclear
policy and freedom of expression. He once considered running for Congress
as a Democrat, but decided against it. Toward the end of his life,
he spoke out against the increase of sexual content on television.
Allen was proudest of his "Meeting of Minds" series which appeared
on PBS from 1976 to 1979. He moderated a panel of actors impersonating
historic figures such as Galileo, Emily Dickinson, Cleopatra (played
by Jayne Meadows), Charles Darwin and Attila the Hun, who explained
their diverse philosophies. Steve
Allen came by his humor naturally; both his parents, Billy Allen and
Belle Montrose, were vaudeville comedians. Their son was born in New
York City on 26 December 1921, during a brief respite from their travels.
Steve was 18 months old when his father died, and his mother continued
touring the circuits as a single. The boy grew up in other people's
homes, mostly with his mother's family in Chicago, the Donahues. Allen
won a partial scholarship to study journalism at Drake University,
but severe asthma caused him to transfer to Arizona State Teachers
College in 1942. After a few months he dropped out to work as a disc
jockey and entertainer at radio station KOY in Phoenix. Drafted in
1943, he was soon released because of asthma. He returned to KOY,
and married his college sweetheart, Dorothy Goodman. They had three
sons, Steve Jr., David and Brian, and divorced in 1952. Allen moved
to Los Angeles and began offering his comedy and music on local radio.
A midnight show on KNX brought Allen a small but enthusiastic audience
and attracted national attention in 1950 when it was carried on the
CBS network as a summer replacement for "Our Miss Brooks.
The networks were converting to television,
and he was invited to New York for "The Steve Allen Show," which appeared
five evenings a week on CBS. He married actress Jayne Meadows in 1954.
Their only child, Bill, said that on Monday, his father was visiting
his home. "He said he was a little tired after dinner and carving
pumkins with his grandchildren. He went to relax, peacefully, and
never reawakened. He
wrote 53 books

1998 At least 2000 persons, by a mudslide caused by Hurricane
Mitch, on the slopes of the Casitas volcano in Posoltega, Nicaragua. 1984
Rev. Jerzy Popieluszko is found dead; he had been abducted 11 days
earlier by the Polish secret police, and his corpse shows marks of torture.1975 Martha
Moxley [16 Aug 1960–] [photo >], bludgeoned
with a golf club, and finished off by being stabbed in the neck with the
broken golf club shaft, at about 22:00, after a night of pre-Halloween partying
in the exclusive Belle Haven section of Greenwich, Connecticut. Michael
Skakel [19 Sep 1960~], would be arrested for it on 19 January 2000 and
tried
as an adult beginning on 07 May 2002 at state Superior Court in Norwalk,
Connecticut. On 07 June 2002 he would be convicted and, on 16 July 2002,
sentenced to prison for 20 years to life (eligible for parole in 11 years).
The case would attract much attention because Michael Skakel's father is
the brother of the wife of Robert
F. Kennedy [20 Nov 1925 – 06 Jun 1968]. —(061113)1975::
4 of the 5 crew members and 71 of the 115 passengers aboard a McDonnell
Douglas DC-9-32 of Inex Adria Aviopromet, coming from Tivat, Serbia, which
crashes into high ground in fog, on its ILS
approach to the Praha-Ruzyne airport, Czech Republic. —(061029)1974 Diez obreros, en el incendio de la factoría Fasa-Renault.
Los heridos son más de treinta.1972: 45 persons
are killed as an Illinois Central Gulf commuter train collides with another
train on Chicago's South Side.1972 All 24 passengers and 3
crew members aboard a Fokker F-27 Friendship plane of Aero Transporti
Italiani, coming from Naples, Italy, which, on its approach to the Bari
airport, crashes into a hill at Poggiorsini.— {The place was not renamed
Peggiorsini, but it would have been a good idea.} —(061029) 1970: 293Vietnamese, killed by monsoon rains, the worst
in six years. 200'000 are left homeless.Vietnam war fighting in the five
northern-most provinces is almost halted. 1968 Conrad Richter,
novelist and short story writer born on 13 October 1890. As a young man,
Richter did odd jobs and at age 19 became the editor ofthe Patton (Pennsylvania)
Courier. He then worked as a reporter and founded a juvenile magazine that
he liquidated before moving to New Mexico in 1928. In an era when many American
writers steeped themselves in European culture, Richter was fascinated with
American history, and he spent years researching frontier life. He is best
known for The Sea of Grass (1936) and his trilogy of pioneer life,
The Trees (1940), The Fields (1946), and The Town
(1950), the final volume of which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in
1951. Richter's stories are usually told in the voice of a contemporary
narrator, allowing the reader to see the present and past as a continuum.
Among other themes, he explored the dilemma of the identity of the Amerindian,
infusing some of his novels with a social consciousness. An autobiographical
novel, The Waters of Kronos (1960), won the National Book Award
in 1961. 1965: 48 Vietnamese civilians bombed by US,
55 wounded, in a friendly South Vietnamese village. A US civic action team
is immediately sent there, and a later investigation would disclose that
a map-reading error by South Vietnamese officers was responsible.1959
All 3 crew members and 23 of the 24 passengers aboard a DC-3 of
Piedmont Airlines, coming from Washinghton DC, which crashes at 800m-altitude
into the 950m Bucks Elbow Mountain, near Waynesborough, Virginia, as it
makes an instrument approach to the Charlottesville-Albermarle airport,
some 15 km west of the correct spot. The captain was suffering from mental
stress that may have resulted in the lateral navigational error. —(061029)1959 30 persons killed in Stanleyville, Congo, as Belgian
troops repress independentist manifestations. Patrice Lumumba [02 Jul 1925
– 19 Jan 1961] is imprisoned on a charge of inciting to riot.1956 Pío
Baroja y Nessi, born on 28 December 1872, Basque writer, the
foremost Spanish novelist of his generation. After receiving his medical
degree, Baroja practiced medicine for a short time in a village in northern
Spain, later returning to Madrid to work in the family bakery. As a member
of the Generation of '98, Baroja revolted against the stultification of
Spanish life. His first two books, a collection of short stories, Vidas
sombrías (1900), and a novel, La casa de Aizgorri (1900),
clearly show the direction his later work would take. Attempting to arouse
people to action, he wrote 11 trilogies dealing with contemporary social
problems, the best known of which, La lucha por la vida (1904),
portrays the misery and squalor in the poor sections of Madrid. Rebel and
nonconformist, Baroja wrote at length about vagabonds and people who reflected
his own thinking; El árbol de la ciencia (1911) is autobiographical.
Of the almost 100 novels he wrote, the most ambitious project was Memorias
de un hombre de acción (1913–1928), a series of 14 novels and 8 volumes
of shorter narratives dealing with a 19th-century insurgent and his era.
One of his best novels, Zalacaín el aventurero (1909), is written
in an intentionally abrupt style reflecting Baroja's vision of reality as
disjointed. Because of his anti-Christian views, his stubborn insistence
on nonconformity, and a somewhat pessimistic attitude, Baroja's novels never
achieved great popularity. His terse and unadorned style, which relied heavily
upon understatement, is said to have had great influence on Ernest Hemingway.1950 Luis Carlos López, poeta y periodista colombiano.
1949 Ángel González Palencia, arabista y escritor
español. 1948 20 die and 6000 made ill by smog in
Donora Pennsylvania.1936 Lorado Taft, born on 29 April
1860, US sculptor of portrait busts and monumental allegorical works. He
was also an influential teacher and writer. 1932 Paul Sanford
Methuen, born on 01 September 1845, British military commander
who was defeated by the Boer generals J.H. De la Rey and P.A. Cronje in
the Battle of Magersfontein (11 December 1899) during the South African
War.1919 Ella Wheeler Wilcox, author of Custer,
and Other Poems, Custer,
and Other Poems, How
Salvator Won and Other Recitations, Poems
of Pleasure, Poems
of Power, Shells1917 Andrews, Elisha Benjamin: author of An
Address Delivered... December 21, 1875, At His Inauguration as President
of Denison University1912 Graeme Mercer Adam,
author ofCanada,
Historical and Descriptive, From Sea to Sea -- Prominent
Men of Canada: A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and
Political Life, and in the Commerce and Industry of Canada -- co-author
of An
Algonquin Maiden: A Romance of the Early Days of Upper Canada1895 Adolf Stademann, German artist born on 19 June 1824.
 links to two
images1893 Karl Bodmer, in Barbizon, France, Swiss
painter specialized in the US West, born in February 1809.  MORE
ON BODMER AT ART 4 OCTOBER
with links to images. 1893 Sir John Abbott, 72,
PM of Canada (C) (1891-1892) 1883 Dos de los cabecillas de
la insurrección en Belgrado (Serbia) de 15 días de duración, ejecutados,
así termina la insurrección.

^1881 Jerome J. Collins, George
Washington De Long, James M.M. Ambler, and Ah Sam, of exposure and
starvation (on this day or, the last three men, very
soon after). Born on 22 August
1844, De
Long graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1865 and was assigned
to the steam sloop Canandaigua. Subsequently promoted to
the ranks of Ensign, Master, and Lieutenant, he was an officer on
USS Juniata during its 1873 voyage to Greenland in search
of the missing exploration ship Polaris. Lieutenant DeLong
later served as Executive Officer of the training ship Saint Mary's.
His experiences on the Juniata convinced Lieutenant DeLong of the
value of Arctic exploration, and he joined New York Herald
publisher James Gordon Bennett [10 May 1841 – 14 May 1918] in
planning an attempt to reach the North Pole in a ship specially strengthened
to drift in the Arctic icepack. Bennett purchased the British steam
bark Pandora in 1878, renamed it Jeannette (the
original name might have been more befitting its ultimate fate) and
turned it over to the US Navy under the terms of a Congressional authorization
to operate the ship, with Bennett bearing the costs. DeLong, who was
to command the planned expedition, brought Jeannette from
Europe to San Francisco, California, where it was refitted for ice
navigation. Setting sail from
San Francisco on 08 July 1879, De Long took the Jeannette through
the Bering Strait and headed for Wrangel Island, off the northeast
coast of Siberia. At the time, many believed that Wrangel was a large
landmass stretching far to the north, and De Long hoped to sail as
far as possible along its coast and then to sled to the Pole. On 05
September 1879, however, the ship became trapped in the pack ice near
Herald Island (now Gerald Island), east of Wrangel. While drifting
northwestward for 21 months, De Long discovered the limited extent
of Wrangel. At 77°15' N, 155°
E, northeast of the New Siberian Islands, the Jeannette was
crushed by ice (12 June 1881) and sank the following day. The crew,
including De Long, escaped with most of their provisions and three
small boats. Their destination, the Siberian coast, was some 1000
km away. They endured extreme hardships for the next two months as
they crossed the ice. After reaching open water, one of the boats
and the men aboard were lost. The remaining boats became separated;
De Long's reached the eastern side of the Lena River delta, and his
engineer, George Melville, reached the western side. Melville's party
was rescued, but De Long and his men died of exposure and starvation.
De Long's journal, in which he made
regular entries until 30 October 1881, was found a year later and
published as The Voyage of the Jeannette (1883). Three years
after the Jeannette was sunk, wreckage from it was found
on an ice floe on the southwest coast of Greenland, a discovery that
gave new support to the theory of trans-Arctic drift.
From 1879 to 1881 thirty-three
US Navy officers, enlisted men, and civilians, led by Lieutenant Commander
George Washington DeLong, participated in an epic Arctic adventure
that defines the limits of human will and endurance in an overwhelmingly
distant and hostile environment. The undertaking began optimistically
on 08 July 1879, when the Navy operated, but privately owned, steamer
Jeannette left San Francisco, California, for an attempt to reach
the North Pole through what was then believed to be open water beyond
the Arctic icepack. The ship entered the ice to the east of Wrangell
Island on 06 September and, as expected, was held fast within a few
days.Jeannette remained
in the ice as it drifted erratically to the northwest during the rest
of 1879, all of 1880 and the first half of 1881. During this time,
her crew occupied themselves maintaining their ship, making scientific
observations, hunting seals and polar bears and, in May 1881, landing
on Henrietta Island, some 1000 km from Wrangell. With DeLong's leadership
and careful planning, plus the inspired care of Passed Assistant Surgeon
James M. Ambler, their health generally remained good, and the ship,
though leaking somewhat, was still sound. In June 1881 the ice parted
and hopes were entertained that they might reach open sea, but on
the 12 June 1881 the flows closed in with such force that Jeannette's
hull was crushed. The ship sank in the morning of 13 June in position
77º14'57" N, 154º58'45"E. The crew removed three boats,
supplies and some equipment and, after a few days' rest, began a long
and very difficult trek, dragging the boats over the rugged ice so
they would have means to proceed when open water was reached.
Their goal was the Lena River Delta,
1000 km away on the north Siberian coast. In late July, after a journey
prolonged by ice movement, they landed on Bennett Island, still far
from the mainland. Resuming the slog, Jeannette's men headed
southwards through the New Siberian Islands, reaching Kotelnoi and
Simonoski Islands in early September, after which the way was clear
to sail to the Lena Delta. On 12 September 1881, however, the three
boats separated in a storm. One, commanded by second-in-command Lieutenant
Charles
W. Chipp [1845–] and occupied by ice pilot William Dunbar
and six other men, was not seen again. The other two, commanded by
DeLong with thirteen others, and Chief Engineer George
Wallace Melville [10 Jan 1841 – 18 Mar 1912] with ten others,
landed far apart on the delta.
Melville's party soon encountered local inhabitants and were saved.
DeLong and his thirteen men waded ashore through the nearly frozen
water and began to trudge south over the desolate terrain. Seaman
H. H. Ericksen died on 06 October 1881 of the effects of frostbite
and the others were weakened by exposure and hunger. On 09 October
1881, Seamen William F.C. Nindemann [22 Apr 1850~] Nindemann and Louis
P. Noros were sent ahead to find help. Before that materialized, the
remaining eleven died: on 17 October Alexey, on 20 October Kaack,
on 21 October Lee, on 28 October Iveson and Dressler, on 29 October
Boyd and Gertz, on 30 October New York Herald journalist
and meteorologist Jerome
J. Collins [17 Oct 1841–], and last of all DeLong, USN Passed
Assistant Surgeon James
M.M. Ambler [30 Dec 1848–], and Seaman Ah Sam on 30 October
1881, when De Long made his final journal entry, or possibly a day
or two later. The bodies of ten were discovered in March 1882, as
Melville conducted an exhausting search for the other members of the
expedition, and were transported back to the United States in early
1884.

^1862 Ormsby MacKnight Mitchell, Union general, of yellow
fever. Union
General Ormsby MacKnight Mitchell, commander of the Department of
the South, dies at Beaufort, South Carolina. Born in Kentucky on 28
July 1809, Mitchell grew up in Lebanon, Ohio. He attended West Point
and graduated in 1829 along with future Confederate leaders Joseph
Johnston and Robert E. Lee. He excelled at mathematics and graduated
15th out of a class of 56 cadets. Mitchell taught at West Point before
becoming a surveyor on the Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad. He served
another stint in the military when he went to St. Augustine, Florida,
but he found his true calling when he accepted a professorship at
Cincinnati College in 1836. He soon gained wide acclaim as a lecturer
on astronomy. His lecture tours in the United States and Europe helped
fund the Cincinnati Observatory, which he directed when it opened
in 1845. When the war erupted
in 1861, Mitchell used his West Point education as a brigadier general
in the Army of the Ohio under General Don Carlos Buell and participated
in operations in Kentucky and Tennessee in 1862. Mitchell also directed
raids into northern Alabama, capturing Huntsville in April 1862. Mitchell
was a critic of the "soft war," or limited approach, of many northern
generals, and his actions made him a target of conservative northern
newspapers. Advocating a tougher stance against Southern civilians
and the institution of slavery, he confiscated the property of prominent
Confederates and protected slaves who escaped to his lines well before
the practice was mandated by Federal policy.
In July 1862 he was named commander of the Department of the South.
He moved to headquarters on the Sea Islands of South Carolina, where
he oversaw the building of schools and homes for slaves in the captured
territory. This movement, begun by his predecessor, General David
Hunter, is considered the first experiment in the reconstruction of
the South. However, Mitchell's death from yellow fever cut short his
participation in the experiment.

1848 Martinus Schouman, Dutch artist born on 29 January
1770.1810 Francais
Francais, mathematician 1799 Esteban de Arteaga,
jesuita español dedicado a la Estética.1787 Ferdinando Galiani,
born on 02 December 1728, Italian economist whose studies in value theory
anticipated much later work.1785 Gustav Philip greve Creutz,
born on 01 May 1731, Swedish poet whose light and graceful verse expressed
the prevailing Rococo spirit and Epicurean philosophy of his time.1739 Magnitsky,
mathematician 1632 Henri II, duc de Montmorency,
Maréchal de France, voulait que Gaston d'Orléans, frère du roi Louis XIII,
monte sur le trône. En dépit des dix-sept blessures qu'il a reçues lors
des combats de Castelnaudary, il est vivant. Il a été fait prisonnier et
ce jour, à Toulouse, où il a été jugé et condamné à mort pour crime de lèse-majesté,
il est conduit à l'échafaud. Il a refusé d'être soigné et pansé : "Non,
l'heure est venue de guérir toutes mes plaies par une seule. Malgré
l'ordre du roi qui dispensait qu'on lui lie les mains, il demande à ce qu'on
les lui attache : "Je ne saurai mourir avec assez de honte. 1666 Willem Gilleszoon Kool, Dutch artist born in 1608.
 [he must have painted some Kool pictures, but I cannot find anything
of or on him].1661 Alexander Adriaenssen,
Flemish painter baptized as an infant on 16 January 1587. — more1632 Jean Armoux, teólogo y predicador francés. 1626 Willebrord
Snell van Roijen, 35, Dutch mathematician.1618
Prospero Farinacci dies on his 74th birthday. He was an Italian
jurist whose Praxis et Theorica Criminalis (1616) was the strongest
influence on penology in Roman-law countries until the reforms of the criminologist-economist
Cesare Beccaria [15 Mar 1738 – 28 Nov 1794]. The Praxis is most
noteworthy as the definitive work on the jurisprudence of torture. After
studying law at Padua and earning a reputation as an advocate, Farinacci
entered papal service under Clement VIII [24 Feb 1536 – 05 Mar 1605]
and was procurator general to Paul V [17 Sep 1552 – 28 Jan 1621].
A staunch churchman, Farinacci upheld the inviolability of the confessional
seal against all theories of state necessity. 1429 Ambrogio
di Baldese, Italian artist born in 1352.1340 The dead
of the Battle of Río Salado fought by the allied Castilian
and Portuguese Christian forces against the Muslim Marinids of North Africa
who are making a final attempt to invade the Iberian Peninsula. The battle,
which interrupts a series of disputes between the Castilian and Portuguese
over throne and territorial rights, is the final alliance of the two to
repulse the Moorish invaders. The Marinids had gathered a vast army and
destroyed the Castilian fleet in the Strait of Gibraltar. They proceeded
inland to the Salado River near Sevilla, where they met the allies, led
by Alfonso XI [1311 – 26 Mar 1350] of Castile and Afonso IV [08 Feb
1291 – 28 May 1357] of Portugal. The Marinids experience a disastrous
defeat and retreat to Africa.

1970 Xie Jun, twice women's world chess champion,
from 1991 to 1996 and again from 1999. In 1991 she defeated Maya Chiburdanidze
[17 Jan 1961~] of Georgia. She lost the title to Zsuzsa Polgar [19 Apr 1969~]
of Hungary in 1996, but regained the title in 1999 by defeating another
championship finalist, Alisa Galliamova, after Polgar refused to accept
match conditions and forfeited her title. 1956
Frédéric Berger, Swiss artist. His
site.1946 William
Paul Thurston, US mathematician.1941 Theodor W.
Hänsch, German physicist who shared one-half of the 2005 Nobel
Prize for Physics with John L. Hall [1934~] “for their contributions to
the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical
frequency comb technique”. The other half was awarded to Roy J. Glauber
[1925~]. —(051004)1939 Leland Hartwell[< photo],
US scientist who, with Paul M. Nurse [25 Jan 1949~] and R. Timothy Hunt
[19 Feb 1943~], shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2001
for discovering key regulators of the cell cycle. Hartwell studied at the
California Institute of Technology (BS 1961) and the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (PhD 1964). He served on the faculty of the University of
California at Irvine from 1965 to 1968, when he moved to the University
of Washington. In 1996 he joined the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
in Seattle, Washington, becoming president and director in 1997. In the
late 1960s Hartwell began using baker's yeast to study how cells control
their growth and division. He identified more than 100 genes, termed cell-division-cycle
(CDC) genes, involved in cell-cycle control. One such gene, named cdc28,
was demonstrated to control the first phase and so became known as “start.”
Hartwell also found that the cycle includes optional pauses, called checkpoints,
that allow time for repair of damaged DNA. His work helped expand scientific
understanding of cancer and other diseases that occur when the machinery
of the cell cycle goes awry.1930 Timothy Irving Frederick
Findley, Canadian author known for his intelligent writing and
storytelling. His subject matter is often the lives of troubled individuals.
He died on 20 June 2002. 1928 Daniel Nathans, biólogo
estadounidense, Nobel de Fisiología y Medicina 1978. 
The 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine would be awarded to Daniel
Nathans, jointly with Werner Raber and Hamilton O. Smith, for the
discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular
genetics. Nathans died on 16 November 1999.  MORE1912 José Ferrater Mora, filósofo y escritor
español. 1910
La Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) celebra en Barcelona
su congreso constitutivo.1910 Miguel Hernández,
poeta español. 1907 Harold
Davenport, mathematician 1906 Tikhonov,
mathematician.1900 Ranar Arthur Granit, Finnish-born
Swedish physiologist who, with George Wald [18 Nov 1906 – 12 Apr 1997]
and Haldan Hartline [22 Dec 1903 – 17 Mar 1983], was a corecipient
of the 1967 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his analysis of the
internal electrical changes that take place when the eye is exposed to light.
Granit died on 12 March 1991. 1885 Ezra Pound Hailey,
Idaho, poet (Cantos)1895 Dickinson Woodruff Richards,
US Nobel Prize-winning physiologist (1956), who died on 23 February 1973.1895 Mario Tozzi, Italian artist who died in 1979.1893
Angelo
Siciliano Charles Atlas as he would call himself
after turning himself from a 97-pound weakling [< photo]
into the World's Most Perfectly Developed Man. (in his own words).
[photo >] He died in 1972. His mail-order Total Health
and Fitness Program is still promoted at http://www.charlesatlas.com/1888 First ballpoint pen patented 1885
Ezra Loomis Pound, US literary critic and poet who promoted Imagism,
a poetic movement stressing free phrase rather than forced metric. He was
imprisoned for his pro-Fascist radio broadcasts. Translator of Rémy
de Gourmont's The
Natural Philosophy of Love. Pound died on 01 November 1972.1882 William F. Bull" Halsey, Jr., US admiral who
played an instrumental role in the defeat of Japan during World War II.
The Japanese surrender was signed on his flagship, the USS Missouri. 1873 Francisco I. Madero, Mexican revolutionary, president
(1911-1913) 1871 Paul Valéry
France, poet/essayist/critic (La Jeune)

^1871Ambroise-Paul-Toussaint-Jules
Valéry, French poet, essayist, and critic, who died
on 20 July 1945. His greatest
poem is La Jeune Parque (1917), which was followed by Album
de vers anciens 1890–1900 (1920) and Charmes ou poèmes
(1922), containing “Le Cimetière marin”. He later
wrote a large number of essays and occasional papers on literary topics
and took a great interest in scientific discoveries and in political
problems. Valéry was born
at a small Mediterranean port where his father was a customs officer.
He was educated at Montpellier, where he studied law and cultivated
his interest in poetry and architecture. He was a diffident youth,
and his few friends at this time were Gustave Fourment, who became
a professor of philosophy, and the writers Pierre Louÿs [10 Dec
1870 – 04 Jun 1925] and André Gide [22 Nov 1869 –
19 Feb 1951]. His early literary idols were Edgar Allan Poe [19 Jan
1809 – 07 Oct 1849], J.~K. Huysmans [05 Feb 1848 – 12
May 1907], and Stéphane Mallarmé [18 Mar 1842 –
09 Sep 1898], to whom he was introduced in 1891 and whose artistic
circle he came to frequent regularly.
Valéry wrote many poems between 1888 and 1891, a few of which
were published in magazines of the Symbolist movement and favorably
reviewed, but artistic frustration and despair over an unrequited
love affair prompted him in 1892 to renounce all emotional preoccupations
and to dedicate himself to the “Idol of the Intellect.”
He disposed of most of his books, and from 1894 until the end of his
life he would rise at dawn each day, meditate for several hours on
scientific method, consciousness, and the nature of language, and
record his thoughts and aphorisms in his notebooks, which were later
to be published as the famous Cahiers. Valéry's new-found
ideals were Leonardo da Vinci [15 Apr 1452 – 02 May 1519] (“Introduction
à la méthode de Léonard de Vinci”, 1895),
his paradigm of the Universal Man, and his own creation, “Monsieur
Teste”, an almost disembodied intellect who knows but two values,
the possible and the impossible (“La Soirée avec Monsieur
Teste”, 1896). From 1897
to 1900, Valéry worked as a civil servant in the French War
Office; from 1900, the year of his marriage to a close friend of the
daughter of Mallarmé [18 Mar 1842 – 09 Sep 1898], until
1922, he was private secretary to Édouard Lebey [1850–],
director of the French press association Havas. Valéry's main
daily duty was to read out the chief events from the newspapers and
the Paris Stock Exchange to the director, and he thereby became a
well-informed commentator on current affairs.
Pressed by Gide in 1912 to revise some of his early writings for publication,
Valéry began work on what was intended to be a valedictory
poem to the collection La Jeune Parque, centered on the awakening
of consciousness in the youngest of the three ancient “Parques,”
or “Fates,” which traditionally symbolized the three stages
of human life. He became so engrossed in the technical problems it
presented that he took five years to complete the long symbolic work.
When finally published in 1917, it brought him immediate fame. His
reputation as the most outstanding French poet of his time was quickly
consolidated with Album de vers anciens, 1890–1900
and Charmes ou poèmes, a collection that includes
his famous meditation on death in the cemetery at Sète (where
he now lies buried). Valéry's
most idiosyncratic works are all variations on the theme of the tension
within the human consciousness between the desire for contemplation
and the will to action: in “Introduction à la méthode
de Léonard de Vinci” and repeatedly in his notebooks,
he contrasts the infinite potentialities of mind with the inevitable
imperfections of action; in La Jeune Parque, he shows a young
Fate by the sea at dawn, uncertain whether to remain a serene immortal
or to choose the pains and pleasures of human life; in “Le Cimetière
marin” he broods by the sea at noon on Being and Not-Being,
on the living and the dead; his many letters regularly complain of
the conflict in his own life between the dictates of public life and
his desire for solitude. Valéry
wrote no more poetry of consequence after 1922, but his place as a
major writer was secure. Though his fame was first established, and
still largely rests, on his poetic achievements, and though he devoted
considerable attention to the problems of writing poetry, he consistently
claimed that poetry in itself did not much interest him, and that
literary composition, like mathematics and the sciences, served him
only as mirrors to the workings of his own mind. His essays and prefaces,
more often than not written quickly to order, were the fruits of his
regular meditations and reveal his interest in a remarkably wide variety
of subjects: writers and writing, philosophers and language, painters,
dancing, architecture, and the fine arts are all reexamined with refreshing
vigour. He retained an abiding interest in education, politics, and
cultural values, and two remarkably prescient youthful essays on the
Sino-Japanese conflict (“Le Yalou,” written 1895) and
the threat of German aggression (“La Conquête allemande,”
1897) reveal the same anxious awareness of the forces menacing Western
civilization as his very last public lecture on Voltaire (delivered
in 1944). After the death of Lebey
in 1922, the formerly retiring Valéry became a prominent public
personage. His erudition, courtesy, and dazzling conversational gifts
made him a much sought-after society figure, and he was as much at
ease in the company of the foremost international writers and scientists
of the day as with generals and heads of state. Valéry was
greatly interested in the state of modern physics and mathematics,
and through extensive reading and, often, personal acquaintances he
became well versed in the work of such scientists and mathematicians
as Maurice duc de Broglie [27 Apr 1875 – 14 Jul 1960], Bernhard
Riemann [17 Sep1826 – 20 Jul 1866], Michael Faraday [22 Sep
1791 – 25 Aug 1867], Albert Einstein [14 Mar 1879 – 18
Apr 1955], and James Clerk Maxwell [13 Jun 1831 – 05 Nov 1879].
He made lecture tours all over Europe and delivered speeches on a
number of national occasions. He was elected to the Académie
Française in 1925, was made administrative head of the Centre
Universitaire Méditerranéen at Nice in 1933, and became
professor of poetry, a chair created especially for him, at the Collège
de France in 1937. On his death, he was given a full state funeral.
Though he made much of his preoccupation
with intellectual problems and incurred the particular displeasure
of the Surrealists for his scathing attacks on poetic inspiration,
there is ample evidence in Valéry's work that he remained all
his life keenly responsive to the pleasures of the senses: the voluptuousness
of his female nude studies (“Luxurieuse au bain,” “La
Dormeuse,” and the picture of Eve in “Ébauche d'un
serpent”), the warmth with which he writes of the lovers' embrace
(“Le Cimetière marin,” “Fragments du Narcisse,”
“La Fausse Morte”) or of the sun, sky, and sea, which
he had loved since his Mediterranean childhood, all show that he must
not be too closely identified with his arid Monsieur Teste. The distinctive
feature of his prose and poetry, even when he is dealing with the
most abstract of subjects, is sensuousness; his prose is aphoristic
and graceful, his poetry rich in natural images and allusions, always
classical in form, and, at its best, as sinewy, subtly rhythmical,
and melodious as the very best verse of the great dramatist Jean Racine
[22 Dec 1639 – 21 Apr 1699] or the Symbolist poet Paul Verlaine
[30 Mar 1844 – 08 Jan 1896].

^1864 Helena, Montana, is founded
The town of Helena, Montana, is founded
by four gold miners who struck it rich at the appropriately named
"Last Chance Gulch. The first major Anglo settlement of Montana
had begun just two years before in the summer of 1862, when prospectors
found a sizeable deposit of placer gold at Grasshopper Creek to the
west. When other even richer deposits were soon discovered nearby,
a major rush began as tens of thousands of miners scoured the territory
in search of gold. In 1864, four prospectors spotted signs of gold
in the Helena area while on their way to the Kootenai country, but
they were eager to reach the reportedly rich gold regions farther
to the north and did not to stop. But after striking out on the Kootenai,
they decided to take "one last chance" on finding gold and returned.
When the signs turned out to mark a rich deposit of placer gold, they
staked their claims and named the new mining district Last Chance
Gulch. Eventually, Last Chance
Gulch would prove to be the second biggest placer gold deposit in
Montana, producing some $19 million worth of gold in just four years.
Overnight, thousands of miners began to flood into the region, and
the four original discoverers added to their fortunes by establishing
the town of Helena to provide them with food, lodging, and supplies.
But unlike many of the early Montana mining towns, Helena did not
disappear once the gold gave out, which it inevitably did. Located
on several major transportation routes, well supplied with agricultural
products from an adjacent valley, and near to several other important
mining towns, Helena was able to survive and grow by serving the wider
Montana mining industry. In 1875, the city became the capital of Montana
Territory, and in 1894, the capital of the new state of Montana.

1861 Horace Annesley Vachell, author of The
Hill: A Romance of Friendship1861 Émile-Antoine
Bourdelle, French sculptor whose works, exhibiting exaggerated,
rippling surfaces mingled with the flat,decorative simplifications of Archaic
Greek and Romanesque art, introduced a new vigor and strength into the sculpture
of the early 20th century. He died on 01 October 1929.1858
Louise Abbéma, French Artist who died in 1927.1857
Gertrude Franklin (Horn) Atherton, novelist. ATHERTON ONLINE: Rezánov
 Rezánov1853 Ottokar Walter, Austrian artist who died on
15 December 1904.1844 Halphen,
mathematician 1843 Henri Alexandre Georges Regnault,
French painter specialized in Orientalism. He died on 19 January 1871. 
MORE
ON REGNAULT AT ART 4 OCTOBER
with links to images.1842 Thomas Jacques Somerscales,
British artist, active in Chile, who died on 27 June 1927.  MORE
ON SOMERSCALES AT ART 4 OCTOBER
with links to images.1840 Neuberg,
mathematician 1839 Alfred Sisley, French painter
who died on 29 January 1899.  MORE
ON SISLEY AT ART 4 OCTOBER
with links to images.1827 Leopold Baron of Löffler-Radymno,
Austrian Polish artist who died on 06 February 1898.1815 Elizabeth
Leslie Rous (married: Comstock), Anglo-American
Quaker minister and social reformer, an articulate abolitionist and an influential
worker for social welfare who helped adjust the perspective of the Society
of Friends to the changes wrought by the urban-industrial age. She died
on 03 August 1891.

^1811 Sense and Sensibility by a Lady, is published Jane Austen's Sense
and Sensibility is published anonymously. A small circle
of people, including the Price Regent, learned Austen's identity,
but most of the British public knew only that the popular book had
been written "by a Lady. Austen was born in 1775, the seventh
of eight children born to a clergyman in Steventon, a country village
in Hampshire, England. She was very close to her older sister, Cassandra,
who remained her faithful editor and critic throughout her life. The
girls had five years of formal schooling, then were taught by their
father. Jane read voraciously and began writing stories as young as
age 12, completing an early novella at age 14.
Austen's quiet, happy world was disrupted when her father retired
to Bath in 1801. Jane hated the resort town but amused herself by
making close observations of ridiculous society manners. After her
father's death in1805, Jane, her mother, and sister lived with one
of her brothers until 1808, when another brother provided them a permanent
home at Chawton Cottage, in Hampshire. Jane concealed her writing
from most of her acquaintances, slipping her writing paper under a
blotter when someone entered the room. Though she avoided society,
she was charming, intelligent, and funny. She rejected at least one
proposal of marriage. She published several more novels before her
death, including Pride
and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield
Park (1814), and Emma
(1815). She died at age 42, of what today is thought to be Addison's
disease.
AUSTEN ONLINE:

1809 Claudio Moyano Samaniego, político liberal español.
1799 Emilius-Ditlev Baerentzen, Danish artist who
died on 14 February 1868. 1794 L'Ecole Normale Déjà
le problème des instituteurs se pose et pour suppléer à ce manque, Lakanal,
au nom du Comité d'instruction publique, crée l'Ecole Normale. Mille six
cents citoyens " déjà instruits dans les sciences utiles " sont désignés
par les administrateurs de districts et envoyés à Paris, où on leur apprendra
l'art d'enseigner.1789 Hiram Bingham, author. BINGHAM
ONLINE: Story
of the Morning Star, the Children's Missionary Vessel1754
Philippe Antoine Merlin “de Douai”, one of the foremost
jurists of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, who died on
26 December 1838. 1751 Richard Brinsley Sheridan
playwright, author of The Rivals, SHERIDAN ONLINE:The
School for Scandal  The
School for Scandal1740 Angelica Catharina Maria
Anna Kauffman, Swiss artist who died on 05 November 1807.1737 Niklas Lafrensen, Swedish painter who died on 07 December
1807.  MORE
ON LAFRENSEN AT ART 4 OCTOBER
with links to images.1735 (19 Oct Julian) John Adams,
Braintree, Mass (F) 2nd US president (1797-1801). Before being president,
he helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the Treaty of Paris,
ending the US War of Independence. John Adams died on the 50th anniversary
of the Declaration of Independence, 04 July 1826, the same day as Thomas
Jefferson [13 Apr 1743–].1712 Christian Wilhelm Ernst
Dietrich, German painter who died on 23 April 1774.  MORE
ON DIETRICH AT ART 4 OCTOBER
with links to images.1657 Jacques Autreau, French
artist who died on 16 October 1745.1544 Prospero Farinacci
who would die on his 74th birthday [details above].1391 Duarte, king of Portugal whose brief reign (1433–38)
witnessed a strengthening of the monarchy through reform of royal land-grant
laws, a continuation of voyages of discovery, and a military disaster in
Tangier. A scholarly, sensitive man of high moral character, Duarte was
known as the philosopher-king and the author of O Leal Conselheiro.
He ascended the throne on the death of his father, John I, well schooled
in legal principles. Shortly thereafter, Edward promulgated the lei mental
(08 Apr 1434), which facilitated the recovery of certain previous royal
land grants and made others subject to royal confirmation at the start of
each new reign. Edward supported the efforts of his brother Henry the Navigator
[04 Mar 1394 – 13 Nov 1460 to explore the west coast of Africa, and
he agreed to a plan for Henry to attempt the conquest of Morocco by attacking
Tangier. The expedition (1437) was a complete failure, and Edward's youngest
brother, Fernando, was captured. The grief-stricken king died of the plague
on 09 September 1438.0130 Antinoopolis (modern Sheikh
'Ibade), Roman city in ancient Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile, is founded
by the Roman emperor Hadrian [24 Jan 76 – 10 Jul 138], who names it
after his homosexual partner Antinoüs [110-130], who drowned in the Nile
near the site earlier that year. It is on the site of a Ramesside temple,
in a place which was settled as early as the New Kingdom (1567–1085 BC).

Thoughts for the day:
“That which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain
to be false.”  Paul Valéry [30
Oct 1871 – 20 Jul 1945] “It has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, that
that which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain
to be false.”
“That which is almost certain to be false, could be true.”
“That which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, has been accepted
by Paul Valéry.”
If you shoot at your friends and don't miss them, you'll miss them.
Public speaking takes a two minute idea, and a two hour vocabulary.
— {the converse is equally unfortunate} A bus station is where the bus stops. A train station
is where the train stops. A work station is where   .
{you complete it!} {How about a gas station? a space station? a police
station?}